Solar energy will satisfy an important part of future energy needs. While the need in solar energy output has grown dramatically in recent years, the total output from all solar installations worldwide still remains around 178 GW, which is only a tiny fraction of the world's energy requirement. High material and manufacturing costs, low solar module efficiency, and shortage of refined silicon limit the scale of solar power development required to effectively compete with the use of coal and liquid fossil fuels.
The key issue currently faced by the solar industry is how to reduce system cost. The main-stream technologies that are being explored to improve the cost-per-kilowatt of solar power are directed to (i) improving the efficiency of a solar cell that comprises solar modules, and (ii) delivering greater amounts of solar radiation onto the solar cell. In particular, these technologies include developing thin-film, polymer, and dye-sensitized photovoltaic (PV) cells to replace expensive semiconductor material based solar cells, the use high-efficiency smaller-area photovoltaic devices, and implementation of low-cost collectors and concentrators of solar energy.
The most common type of a photovoltaic panel in the market is a panel including with an (optionally) tempered glass frontsheet, a flexible backsheet, monofacial PV elements or cells, and surrounded with a structural frame adapted to impart rigidity on the overall construction and facilitate mechanical attachment of the panel to a supporting structure such as a foundation, a roof of a building, or an opening in a wall or ceiling.
By configuring a PV module without a frame while not compromising the structural integrity of the module, the cost of the module and installation of the module is significantly reduced. Moreover, however, the frameless module is easier to integrate into structures already used in the glass and construction industry (as compared to the module possessing the frame), thereby making the frameless module easier to use in architectural applications, for example (such as windows or skylights).